Online sales tax bill facing tough fight in US House

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“It’s about leveling the playing field between the brick-and-mortar and online companies,’’ said Senator Mike Enzi.

By Stephen Ohlemacher
Associated Press
May 08, 2013

WASHINGTON — Traditional retailers and cash-strapped states face a tough sell in the House as they lobby Congress to limit tax-free shopping on the Internet.

The Senate voted 69 to 27 Monday to pass a bill that empowers states to collect sales taxes from Internet purchases. Under the bill, states could require out-of-state retailers to collect sales taxes when they sell products over the Internet, in catalogs, and through radio and TV ads. The sales taxes would be sent to the states where a shopper lives.

Current law says states can only require retailers to collect sales taxes if the merchant has a physical presence in the state.

That means big retailers with stores all over the country like Walmart, Best Buy, and Target collect sales taxes when they sell goods over the Internet. But online retailers like eBay and Amazon don’t have to collect sales taxes, except in states where they have offices or distribution centers.

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‘‘This bill is about fairness,’’ said Senator Mike Enzi, Republican of Wyoming, the bill’s main sponsor in the Senate. ‘‘It’s about leveling the playing field between the brick-and-mortar and online companies and it’s about collecting a tax that’s already due.’’

The bill got bipartisan support in the Senate but faces opposition in the House, where some lawmakers regard it as a tax increase. Grover Norquist, the antitax advocate, and the conservative Heritage Foundation oppose the bill, and many Republicans have been wary of crossing them.

Supporters say the bill is not a tax increase. In many states, shoppers are required to pay unpaid sales tax when they file their state tax returns. However, states complain that few taxpayers comply.

‘‘Obviously there’s a lot of consumers out there that have been accustomed to not having to pay any taxes, believing that they don’t have to pay any taxes,’’ said Representative Steve Womack, Republican of Arkansas, the bill’s main sponsor in the House. ‘‘I totally understand that, and I think a lot of our members understand that. There’s a lot of political difficulty getting through the fog of it looking like a tax increase.’’

On Tuesday morning, House Speaker John Boehner declined to say whether the House would take up the bill. Later, he told Bloomberg Television in an interview that he would ‘‘probably not’’ support the bill. But he said he would refer it to the House Judiciary Committee and ‘‘we'll see what they think.’’

Representative Bob Goodlatte, Republican of Virginia, chairman of the Judiciary Committee, said there are problems with the bill, but he did not reject it outright.

‘‘While it attempts to make tax collection simpler, it still has a long way to go,’’ Goodlatte said. Without more uniformity in the bill, he said, ‘‘businesses would still be forced to wade through potentially hundreds of tax rates and a host of different tax codes and definitions.’’

Goodlatte said he’s ‘‘open to considering legislation concerning this topic but these issues, along with others, would certainly have to be addressed.’’

EBay led the fight against the bill in the Senate, along with lawmakers from states with no sales tax and several prominent antitax groups. The bill’s opponents say it would put an expensive obligation on small businesses because they are not as equipped to collect and remit sales taxes at the multitude of state rates.

Businesses with less than $1 million in online sales would be exempt. EBay wants to exempt businesses with up to $10 million in sales or fewer than 50 employees.

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